𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐅𝐓 (X-Men ~ Peter Maximoff)

Join the bad guys, they said. It'll be fun, they said.

Eyes watering from the impact, Jennifer knew she only had a few moments before another blow would come, and therefore had to quickly formulate a plan. The next blow hit the ground as Jennifer rolled to the side and quickly balanced herself on her feet before kicking Azazael in the ribs. He stumbled back, which gave Jennifer another moment to throw a punch that landed on his cheek, causing his eyes to water slightly. The fight continued in this manner of hit and get hit for another thirty seconds or so, until one punch threw Jennifer back with such a force she stepped out of the square. She lost.

It didn't matter that much to her, she had given everything she had, and losing to someone who was way older than her was nothing to be ashamed of.

The adrenaline faded, and Jennifer started to feel her skin swell where she had been hit, the bruises wouldn't come for another few hours.

Erik made his way over to her, whilst Emma went to Azazael.

"Not bad kid." Erik spoke softly, a tone he never used with anyone else. It brought Jennifer a bit of ease.

"Thanks," she monotoned, cupping her cheek in pain. Sighing, Jennifer removed her hand and looked up to Erik. "What now?"

"Now, you grab some food."

Jennifer huffed, but did as Erik said, grabbing her denim jacket on the way out of the warehouse. Getting food seemed innocent enough, but Jennifer knew it was an excuse to get her out of the way - she wasn't trusted with the important stuff.  It hurt, maybe she couldn't fight quite as well as them, but that didn't mean she had to be excluded from conversations.

The warehouse was on the outskirts of Baltimore and was a twenty-minute walk to the nearest shop. Jennifer pulled her jacket closer to her body and treaded along the road, every thought ringing out in her head. She had been stupid to think she could change Erik, crazy to believe she was better than she was, mad to have left everything behind, and straight up insane to lie to her mother. Jennifer had been gone for almost two months now, there was no way in hell her mum hadn't phoned every one of her friends and reported her missing to the police. She must be scared out of her mind right now. But there was nothing Jennifer could do - her only way home was through Azazael (who already wasn't friends with her, never mind if she asked him to teleport across the ocean), and she hardly had enough money for food, so a cross Atlantic phone call was out of the question. She couldn't tell Erik she wanted to leave, because he probably kill a bunch of people to get her home. So she had to stay.

Jennifer rounded a corner and was met with the sight of the small shop she had been coming to frequently over the past week or so.  The final stretch of the path had houses on either side of the road - houses occupied by people oblivious to the danger around them. As she passed Jennifer glanced through windows to see families seated at tables, digging into turkey and smiling at each other. It was thanksgiving, a holiday Jennifer had never celebrated herself (having grown up in Scotland), but had heard about. And this is exactly what she had pictured - family, laughter, warmth, things she was uncertain she would ever have again.

Tired of feeling like the little match girl, Jennifer moved away from the window and stepped into the shop, the bell on the door declaring her presence to the middle aged man behind the counter. After offering him a quick smile, Jennifer made her way to the back of the shop to collect some tins and fresh meat.

With three tins under each arm and numerous packets of meat cradled against her chest, Jennifer made her way to the cash register and dumped it all onto the counter. The cashier looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"My...family and I are passing through; we ran out of food." Jennifer rushed the whole sentence and was now breathing heavily.

The cashier started to input the prices. "Really? That's what you said yesterday."

Jennifer's eyes widened. "Yeah, well, um, car trouble?"

Chuckling the cashier gave Jennifer her change back. "Kid, no offence, but I don't care that much. Just doesn't look like a substantial diet."

"Yeah well, gotta make my money last."

Nodding, the cashier grabbed a bar of chocolate from the stand and discretely slid it across the counter as he filled the paper bag with her groceries. Jennifer smiled and nodded bashfully with thanks, sliding the chocolate into the bag, and with her change in one hand and her bag of food in the other Jennifer left the shop, heading back in the direction she came from.

Jennifer avoided looking through windows on the way through the street, keeping her eyes focused on the pavement as she walked. Halfway back her head became heavy - like someone had replaced her brain with cotton wool. Each step seemed to be going in slow motion, as where her thoughts.

Jennifer dropped the paper bags as her entire body grew limp, and her knees hit the ground harshly as she lost control of her muscles. An agonising pain spread through Jennifer's body - replacing her heavy head with a burning sensation. The world turned onto its side as Jennifer's shoulder hit the floor, but she could hardly feel the impact. Her hands twitched involuntary at the side of her head, but the movement was hardly recognised by the girl.

All Jennifer could do was silently pray that someone would notice her, help her. She couldn't open her mouth to yell for assistance, in fact, she couldn't make a single noise. An unknown amount of time passed, and no one came. Why was it that the one time Jennifer needed help and protecting, there was no one?

The wind picked up around Jennifer's barely conscious body, her eyes fluttering shut with the force. Through her eyelids she could see a bright light, flashing on and off at a rapid rate, to the point that anyone with epilepsy would be dead - and in all honesty Jennifer wasn't far away from that fate.

Then everything was gone - there was no wind, no light, no ground, just...nothingness. Every thought, instinct and emotion was wiped straight from Jennifer's head. She was just there, wherever there was. Of course, she was unaware of this, her brain already shut down. And then it woke up.